Around two thirds of people want to see the UK become a clean energy superpower (64%), and for the UK to make enough clean energy to export it to other countries (65%).
The new findings from a nationally representative survey conducted by Opinium on behalf of the Manchester Prize found that a third of people (34%) would like to see the UK take a greater leadership role in helping the world achieve net zero with two in five (39%) saying the UK should prioritise getting ahead of other major economies in the development of green tech in the next five years.
Minister for AI, Feryal Clark, said: “As set out in our Plan for Change, our mission is to make the UK a clean energy superpower.
“We are securing home-grown energy, protecting billpayers, and driving progress towards achieving clean power by 2030, while accelerating the UK’s path to net zero.
“We are deploying every tool in the box to reach this goal, not least through the Manchester Prize which is supporting game-changing advances in artificial intelligence to deliver real change for communities across the country.”
The Manchester Prize is a multi-million-pound challenge prize from the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to reward UK-led breakthroughs in artificial intelligence for public good.
It is delivered by Challenge Works (a Nesta enterprise).
In its second year, it is rewarding UK-led breakthroughs in artificial intelligence that will accelerate action towards the UK’s ambitious clean energy and net zero goals.
The survey found that 42% of people believe that countries that embrace AI technologies now, will be more successful in ten years’ time than those that don’t, with almost half of people (47%) believing the UK should invest in supporting the development of home-grown AI technologies.
More than a third of people would like to see AI technologies developed in the UK that cut the cost of producing renewable energy (36%), reduce dependence on energy imported from overseas (36%) and help make their home energy more efficient (33%).